Backing Up Firefighters

Ladies Auxiliary Volunteers Time To Support Efforts

November 16, 2000|By MELISSA STARR Daily Press

SMITHFIELD — She hasn't been in the limelight very often for the more than 40 years she has been an active member of the Smithfield Ladies Auxiliary, a group that supports local firefighters, but Helen Finley may soon gain some notoriety.

"We used to walk the streets and solicit," she says, then laughs and says, "I guess I shouldn't put it that way. I mean a friend and I would push our babies in carriages up on Main Street and ask people to buy the dogwood buttons to help injured firefighters. Sometimes we made $300 in a couple of hours. We called it a love gift."

Finley's husband, Jack, Smithfield's oldest volunteer firefighter at age 77, has received numerous awards for his work with the fire department since 1954 and has been the subject of several news features.

Through the years, Helen worked quietly at home until her children reached the ages of 7 and 11. Then she took a job with the telephone company in Smithfield, where she worked for 28 years before retiring in 1988. She jokingly describes herself as "the lady with no name."

"You know how some women in the Bible are the wife of or the daughter of somebody. I always tell people I'm Jack Finley's wife," she explains with a smile and a soft voice.

Jack Finley gives her more credit for his success than she is willing to give herself.

Helen says she is not a charter member of the Smithfield Ladies Auxiliary, because she was pregnant with her son, Robert, when the group was formed. She joined soon after Robert was born, at a time when the group was limited to the wives of firefighters. Now it encompasses other immediate female family members of firefighters, as well.

"We have a few women firefighters, but we haven't had trouble with their husbands wanting to join the ladies auxiliary," Finley said. "It happened once on the state level, but the man just came to one meeting to make the news."

The group holds a large fund-raiser for the Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department each year and carries food and drinks to firefighters when they have to work for hours to put out a big fire.

"The ladies auxiliary was formed for one reason: to help firefighters," Finley says. "All Chief Buddy Jones has to do is call, and we get meals together for them," she said. "Our group paid for the kitchen appliances, dishes, silverware and pots and pans in the firehouse."

Finley says she worked with the ladies auxiliary because someone called and asked her to help. She smiles, knowing that wouldn't be enough to settle the issue for some women.

"No matter where you go, volunteering today is not what it used to be," she says. "It's sad, but it's not the priority anymore. People don't wish to give of their time as they used to, but how do you say no when help is really needed? I kept my house, worked, raised children and did volunteer work with the ladies auxiliary and my church. I guess women who work today have jobs that are more mentally stressful or something, but I've always enjoyed everything I've done. I enjoy keeping busy."

Over the years, Finley says, she has heard a few firefighters' wives complain about the amount of time their husbands spend at the firehouse.

"I always remind them that at least they know where their husbands are," she says. "It never bothered me for Jack to be at the firehouse. I told my children. 'Daddy's not at home; he's at his second home.'"